Saturday, May 19, 2012

ABC's flawed DT reporting

"THE accuracy of the ABC's reporting on climate change has been called into question by an activist who uncovered documentary evidence that undermines one of the national broadcaster's most sensational reports on the subject.

Climate change blogger Simon Turnill told The Weekend Australian the contents of 11 emails he uncovered using the Freedom of Information Act were at odds with last year's ABC report that death threats had been made against climate scientists at the Australian National University.

Then, when the ABC reported on the contents of those emails after they were uncovered, it did so in a manner that he regarded as being incomplete. The ABC neglected to include the key fact that there was no evidence in those emails of death threats at ANU, contrary to previous ABC reports. Mr Turnill said he was disappointed but not surprised because he believed the ABC's approach to climate change "toes the consensus line" and anyone who challenged the orthodoxy received short shrift."

According to the ABC the emails " include an email describing a physical threat to use a gun against an academic because the conference participant reportedly disagreed with the climate change research."

This is Bullshit! The story has now removed from ABC's website following our request for more information, so I guess ABC agree.

We asked head of policy for news, Alan Sunderland for an explanation

Hi Alan,

I note that the article posted on the Radio Australia website on May 16 titled "Climate scientist abuse emails released" in which claims were made (falsely) that released emails " include an email describing a physical threat to use a gun against an academic because the conference participant reportedly disagreed with the climate change research." has been removed from ABC's website. To my knowledge ABC have not provided an on air, or online correction to the false claims made in this report. Is it the ABC's intention to allow these errors to go uncorrected with no apology provided to those falsely implicated?

Can you also please explain why the article was removed and an editorial note was not simply added. I was hoping to link to the article as another example of misrepresentation by the ABC on this issue but it's no longer there. I don't suppose you are able to provide a copy of the full text.

Aim of ABC NEWS WATCH

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